FROM THIS EPISODE

Affirmative action, when used as a factor in college admissions, is meant to foster diversity and provide equal opportunities in education for underrepresented minorities. But is it achieving its stated goals and helping the population it was created to support? Its critics point to students struggling to keep up in schools mismatched to their abilities and to the fact that the policy can be manipulated to benefit affluent and middle class students who already possess many educational advantages. Is it time to overhaul or abolish affirmative action?

Author and ABC News correspondent John Donvan moderates a panel of law professors: Gail Heriot (University of San Diego, member of the US Commission on Civil Rights) Richard Sander (UCLA), Randall Kennedy (Harvard) and Theodore Shaw (Columbia). Presented in partnership with Harvard Law School, this is a co-production of Intelligence Squared US and NPR.